A PAIR OF CHIPPENDALE BRASS ANDIRONS
PROPERTY OF A FLORIDA FAMILY
A PAIR OF CHIPPENDALE BRASS ANDIRONS

PHILADELPHIA, 1770-1790

細節
A PAIR OF CHIPPENDALE BRASS ANDIRONS
Philadelphia, 1770-1790
Each with reeded urn-form top with lobed finial above a meandering-vine tapered columnar support over a stepped rectangular plinth, on double-spurred cabriole legs terminating in ball-and-claw feet
28½in. high (2)
來源
By descent from Margaret Smith Underhill (married circa 1784), Long Island, New York

拍品專文

The exceptional pair of andirons illustrated here belongs to a small group of urn-top, meandering-vine set columnar andirons made in Philadelphia around the time of the American Revolution. They represent the highest level of stylistic sophistication, and may be the work of the master brazier Daniel King. Among this group, the present pair appears to be unique in the additional embellishment of reeded urns. Further distinguishing them is the smooth joint between the plinth and the legs, an attribute often associated with New York andirons, but here incorporated into a pair that fits more closely with Philadelphia workmanship.

Just as the distinctive elements of rococo design appeared in the Colonies first in silver forms and ornamentation, so too elements of the classical vocabulary characteristic of the Federal period also appeared first in metalwares such as silver and brass. This pair of andirons, with its impressive urn finials, relates to a pair of andirons at the Winterthur Museum. The Winterthur pair employs hairy-paw feet and relates closely to the suite of furnishings made for the Philadelphia home of John Cadwalader in 1770, which included fireplace equipment by Daniel King (see Fennimore, Metalwork in Early America: Copper and its Alloys (Winterthur, DE, 1996), fig. 58). Like the Cadwalader related andirons, the pair illustrated here demonstrates the ascendance of the neoclassical design vocabulary, while retaining solidly rococo ball-and claw feet.

For related examples see, Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack, vol. 4 (1974), p. 1011, P3882. Three additional pairs, one of which is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, are illustrated in Schiffer, The Brass Book (Exton, Pennsylvania, 1978), p. 68.